Gear lever rattle

[toob]

My P reg 1.0 Muzic (manual gearbox) has an annoying gear lever rattle / vibration only when accelerating or cruising at say 60 mph. I just rest my knee against the lever and the noise goes away. I wondered if there was anything simple that could be causing this like a missing spring or something?
If I was to remove the rubber gear lever gator (from inside the car) would I be able to identify the problem or would it need to be looked at from underneath?
Any ideas?

thanks
Mark

 

[airmike]

There you go

http://www.micra.com.au/technical-articles/gearstick-rattle.php

 

[essexpunx]

Or the gear linkage under the car is rattling against the exhaust/heatshield as mine was until i removed the shield.

 

[Daniel]

If you have an aftermarket gearknob, they sometimes rattle on the original gear stick, especially if you have an adapter that you fit onto the gear stick with grub screws, then screw the gearknob onto that. Other than that, could be the something to do with the heatshield like essexpunx says. Shouldn't be anything hugely serious though

 

[frank]

i would check if the return spring is still underneath first mark

 

[toob]

Can someone explain where the return spring should be located and if it would be visible by looking from inside the car with the gator removed?

 

[Daniel]

It's easier to remove the entire gear lever surround, and then there's a metal plate at the base of the gear lever that has to come off so you can see the springs

 

[frank]

Can someone explain where the return spring should be located and if it would be visible by looking from inside the car with the gator removed?

the return spring is accessed from under the car toob (it keeps all the joints under tension, and prevents the rattle)

 

[Daniel]

That's had me corrected :laugh:

 

[1steve]

Got exactly the same issue...rattles at around 60 mph, so assume this is its resonant frequency